Ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene is excellent in impact resistance and abrasion resistance and is therefore used as an engineering plastic in various fields. Also, the ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene has a much higher molecular weight than that of general-purpose polyethylene and is therefore expected to produce a molded product having high strength and high elasticity if the ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene can be highly oriented. Thus, various studies have been made on higher orientation thereof.
Particularly, Patent Document 1 discloses a technique of a so-called “gel spinning method”, which involves dissolving ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene in a solvent and drawing the obtained fiber in a gel form at a high ratio.